Dr. Ramesh Talreja, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named the 2013 winner of the Scala Award by the executive council of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM). With the award comes the privilege of using the title World Fellow of ICCM.
The council meets every two years during the ICCM conference. Talreja was elected to receive the Scala Award during the 19th conference in 2013, and received the award at the 20th conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19-24, 2015. Talreja was invited to deliver the opening plenary lecture (the Scala Award lecture), which was titled “Integration of Manufacturing and Failure Analyses for Sustainable Design of Composites.” More than 1,800 delegates from 55 countries attended the ICCM conference.
The designation of World Fellow is an award given by the ICCM in recognition of one or more of the following: (1) an outstanding contribution to the field of composite materials through research and/or industrial development; (2) international recognition and contribution to the work of ICCM; and (3) other contributions to the field, e.g., through education, contributions to other major conference series, development of standards/design codes, editorial work, etc. World Fellows are designated as life members. Further, at every ICCM since 2005, the outstanding contribution of one individual to the field is recognized through the Scala Award, which carries with it the designation of World Fellow.
“I am humbled by this honor. I did not apply for it and had no inkling I was being considered,” said Talreja. He has been with the department for more than 14 years, serving as department head from 2001-2003. His current interests are cost-effective manufacturing of composites through engineering of defects.